ROCKFORD — There is no dodging the potholes on Broadway between Ninth and 11th streets. There is only bracing for impact.

And the road will only deteriorate further as this long winter season drags on.

“It’s already a minefield out there,” said Pat Zuroske, the city’s capital program manager.

The good news for weary drivers on Broadway is the city has made it a priority to fix the road once the weather breaks enough to allow for construction, Zuroske said.

The city plans to resurface Broadway between 11th and Kishwaukee streets this spring, which will give drivers a continuous smooth stretch between 20th and Kishwaukee. Two years ago the city repaired the stretch between 20th and 11th.

Broadway is an important business district inside the city’s 11th ward and a new road will make the local shops more accessible for customers, Ald. Karen Elyea, D-11 said.

“Keeping with the broken windows theory, if we’re trying to make Broadway a better climate to do business and a safer climate to do business, I think that having a nice road would go far in promoting as a good place to do business,” Elyea said.

Gary Saladino grew up in the area around Broadway and Seventh Street and doesn’t like to see how it’s deteriorated. He said the road repair is a small step toward improvement.

“It will be a far sight better than what it is now,” Saladino said. “You get people who come from out of town and see this and they say ‘What the hell’s wrong with this town?’”

Saladino wants to see local government cooperate to fix large stretches of roads, rather than small patches. He said more of the city’s dollars need to be spent on things like road repairs and helping the homeless, instead of pumping money into projects like the downtown sports complex.

Resurfacing Broadway is expected to cost about $850,000, according to the city’s capital plan. The plan calls for the city to spend about $15 million in sales taxes and $3 million in motor fuel tax funds on transportation projects like street and bridge repairs.

Zuroske said if construction bids come in under budget, the money saved will be dedicated toward other projects. A stretch along 11th Street that needs repairs but isn’t in this year’s capital plan is one example of where extra money could go.

“By July or August, we want to see if we’ve saved enough money so we can go back and do 11th street,” Zuroske said.